U.S. News & World Report Names UC San Diego Graduate Programs Among Nation’s Best

School of Medicine and Jacobs School of Engineering both ranked at 14. Other top 20 programs include biological sciences (14), computer science (15), earth sciences (16), and physics (16)

The 2015 edition of the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Graduate Schools guidebook, released today, highly ranks the University of California, San Diego’s professional schools in engineering and medicine, as well as its academic Ph.D. programs in the sciences.

The U.S. News guidebook annually ranks professional school programs in business, education, engineering, law and medicine. Beyond the five disciplines ranked annually, the publication also periodically ranks programs in other areas. This year, the guidebook released new rankings for Ph.D. programs in the sciences including biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, earth sciences, mathematics and physics in which UC San Diego earned top marks.

“These new rankings confirm UC San Diego’s excellence in education and research,” said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “UC San Diego’s strong academic programs across diverse disciplines give students the opportunity to work closely with our award-winning faculty to pursue endless opportunities for personal and intellectual development.”

UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering ranked 14th out of 212 engineering schools and the biomedical/bioengineering program within the engineering school is ranked 3rd in the nation. The UC San Diego School of Medicine is ranked 14th (up from 15th compared to last year) in research-intensive programs among 128 medical schools; in the primary care category, it placed 38th (up from 39th compared to last year) out of 114 medical schools.

The data from U.S. News indicates UC San Diego graduate programs in the sciences are among the best in the nation. Biological sciences (14th), chemistry (21st), computer science (15th), earth sciences (16th), mathematics (23rd), and physics (16th) were listed near the top nationally in their overall fields. U.S. News also gave high marks to specialties in discrete mathematics and combinations (3rd), and neuroscience/neurobiology (2nd).

The annual Best Graduate Schools rankings are based on two types of data: expert opinions about program excellence and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students. The data come from surveys of administrators at more than 1,350 programs and over 13,500 academics and professionals, conducted during the fall of 2013 and early 2014.

This year, new peer surveys were conducted and new rankings published for Ph.D. programs in including biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, earth sciences, mathematics and physics. The new Ph.D. rankings were based on the results of the two latest surveys; the previous one was conducted in 2009.

Although not newly ranked this year, UC San Diego’s other graduate programs listed in the top 25 include overall field rankings in political science, fine arts, psychology, and economics at 8, 13, 14 and 15, respectively.